Of course, Clark is very selective about where he believes the law should be inserted. His extreme position is untenable on the campaign trail, and you can count on the candidate retooling his position in coming weeks. Nevertheless, the statements are indicative of what Wesley Clark really thinks about an issue as important as abortion and what is necessary in the Democratic Party to gain the presidential nomination.

The Democrats' absolute commitment to abortion is indeed a "litmus test" for leadership in the party. Senator Joseph Lieberman discovered this the hard way when he argued in recent days that "extraordinary advances in medical science" have raised new ethical and legal issues related to fetal viability. Front-runner Howard Dean quickly accused Liebermann of leaving the Democratic reservation and sounding like a Republican.

William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal noted that Liebermann had accidentally "wandered into the no-man's-land of modern American politics: a rational discussion of Roe v. Wade." That kind of rational discussion is not allowable among those who see a woman's "right" to abortion as the centerpiece of personal liberation and sexual freedom.

McGurn calls for returning the abortion issue to democratic politics, where the voters would have the opportunity to settle the issue themselves. As McGurn argues, "The way these debates play out on the political battlefield points to an even more troubling clash: between those who would work within our democratic system to realize their ends and those who simply rely on courts and the judges to impose them."

Beyond this, McGurn also warns that pro-abortion forces are now running a "stealth" effort to get abortion rights recognized in international treaties and court decisions that could be imposed on other nations. Where would Wesley Clark, a committed internationalist, stand on an issue like this? We are only left to wonder, as Clark tries to find his way among the other Democratic candidates in establishing positions on these issues.

Like Howard Dean, Wesley Clark has been talking about his faith in recent days. In an interview published on beliefnet.com, Clark traced his own religious pilgrimage. Raised by his mother after his father died when Clark was three years old, Clark was told at age four to choose the church he wanted to attend. Having attended a Methodist church in Chicago that featured beautiful stained glass windows, Clark was attracted to a Baptist church in his neighborhood that "had those beautiful stained glass windows" and was right across the street from the barbershop he frequented. Later, he would attend other churches before converting to Roman Catholicism during a tour in Viet Nam. That conversion was due, at least in part, to the fact that Clark's wife, Gert, is herself Roman Catholic.

Nevertheless, Clark traces a spiritual pilgrimage that is marked by turning points that have little to do with theology and much more to do with his perception of world affairs and his offense at political statements made from various pulpits. At present, Clark remains a Roman Catholic--but attends a Presbyterian church. He told beliefnet.com, "I'm spiritual. I'm religious. I'm a strong Christian and I'm a Catholic but I go to a Presbyterian Church. Occasionally I go to the Catholic church too. I take communion. I haven't transferred my membership or anything. My wife and I consider ourselves--she considers herself a Catholic."

Wesley Clark may soon become a household name in America, and his meteoric rise in the polls may give him a fighting chance for the Democratic presidential nomination. In any event, his political ascendancy speaks volumes about the political vacuum in the Democratic Party and also about the post-modern spirituality that now passes for normal among the cultural elite. Nevertheless, his radical position on abortion demonstrates that this Roman Catholic rejects the authority of Catholic moral teaching--and the real orthodoxy he serves is established by the special-interest groups of the cultural left. Gen. Clark is a warrior for abortion.